Minimum

Posted by Kerim

August 27, 2003

Nathan Newman has a series of excellent posts on the minimum wage:

Here is the killer factoid:

In real dollars, the minimum wage is lower than it’s been since the 1950s and 30% less than its peak in 1968 when no one was supposed to make less than about $7.40 per hour.

Hence, raising it to $8 would restore it to 1968 levels. Nathan Newman has lots more to say, including an interesting discussion about why “labor markets are not like commodity markets,” and a critique of relying on wage subsidies instead of real wages. Go read!

UPDATE: Two more posts: Why Job Losses from Min Wage Don’t Matter, and, Politics of the Minimum Wage